County: Louth Site name: Mc Creanor’s Terrace, The Black Ridge, Ardee
Sites and Monuments Record No.: LH017-101001 Licence number: Unlicensed monitoring
Author: Caroline Cosgrove, Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit Ltd
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 696372m, N 791002m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.859519, -6.534987
The proposed development was a roughly T-shaped area that measured c. 10.5m in length by 4m to 8m in width. The soil deposits were removed with a toothless graded bucket down to the natural subsoil. The topsoil, C2, varied from a rich garden soil that comprised of a dark greyish-brown clayey silt with occasional charcoal, red brick fragments, sherds of white glazed ceramics, plastic and glass to an orangish brown silty clay at the south-east corner of the site. The topsoil overlay a natural subsoil (C1) that varied from a brownish-orange clayey silt to a grey gravel at the south-east corner. At the south-west end of the stripped area, a square cut was noted. It measured c. 4m east to west by a
minimum of 4m. It was filled with a disturbed deposit (C3), a soft and loose dark brownish-grey
clayey silt with moderate inclusions: glass bottles, sherds of earthen ware, sherds of white ceramics and fragments of red brick. It was taken down to the level required for the development. Modern inclusions were seen in the fill, but to confirm that it was a modern deposit, a box section was excavated by the machine. It had a depth of 0.42m and did contain modern inclusions throughout. C3 was disturbed soil where an outbuilding once stood at the south-west side of the garden. To the east of C3, a field ditch C4, was noted aligned north to south. It ran for a minimum of 4m and had a width that ranged between 0.7m and 1.08m. It contained inclusions of white ceramics.
No features of archaeological significance were identified and no finds were recovered.
Unit 21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth. A92 DH99.
